Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-234) and index.

Wall Street, the first domino -- A brief history of man and algorithms -- The Bot top 40 -- The secret highways of Bots -- Gaming the system -- Paging Dr. Bot -- Categorizing humankind -- Wall Street versus Silicon Valley -- Wall Sreet's loss is a gain for the rest of us -- The future belongs to the algorithms and their creators.

The interaction of man and machine can make our lives easier. But what will the world look like when algorithms control our hospitals, our roads, our culture, and our national security? It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills--and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are increasingly being handled by algorithms that can do precise work not only with speed but also with nuance. These "bots" started with human programming and logic, but now their reach extends beyond what their creators ever expected. In this frightening book, Christopher Steiner tells the story of how algorithms took over--and shows why the "bot revolution" is about to spill into every aspect of our lives, often silently, without our knowledge.--From publisher description.